Comments on: RCP Target Platform Tips

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:24:14 +0000

Hi chunnicutt,

Happy new year to you too! I’m glad you’re finding these posts useful. As for your questions:

1. Yes Launch configurations and Run configurations are the same thing. The language was changed from “Launch” to “Run” a while back, but people use them interchangeably. For more info on Run Configurations, check out this post:

http://www.modumind.com/2009/09/03/run-configurations-and-eclipse-rcp/

2. It’s fine to have a single target platform for an app that will run on multiple platforms. The RCP Delta Pack contains all of the platform-specific fragments/launchers, and should be added to your target platform if you want to use it for builds as well. Some people create a separate build target platform (on a build machine for instance), so developers would not need the RCP Delta Pack locally.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask here or by email. I’d be happy to help.

Regards,

— Patrick

By: chunnicutt

chunnicutt — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:15:40 +0000

Happy 2010! Great posts here. Well, I’m just wrapping up my first rcp application and am now stumbling across how important target platforms are. :) I guess I just have two questions for now… 1. Are “launch configurations” the same thing as “run configurations” (like the ones I look at for my .products)? and 2. My rcp application needs to eventually run on windows, mac, and linux. Should I have a different target defined for each one?

Thanks so much!

By: Creating an Eclipse RCP target platform :: Modular Mind

Creating an Eclipse RCP target platform :: Modular Mind — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:54:19 +0000

[...] RCP target platform tips [...]

By: mbarchfe blog

mbarchfe blog — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Build Automation for your Target Platform…

The target platform is an important concept for delivering a well defined product. It should always be a deliberate and dedicated step to change it. The article RCP Target Platform Tips points out some important rules to which I fully agree. I would f…

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:14:18 +0000

In your launch configuration you can uncheck all the target platform plug-ins and then click Add Required. Only the ones used will be checked and you can remove the rest.

— Patrick

By: Millard Ellingsworth

Millard Ellingsworth — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:11:10 +0000

While I have your attention, is there a straightforward way to determine which of the plugins that may be in your target (say, even from the “standard” collection) that you really don’t need and should remove or disable?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:36:05 +0000

Hi MIllard,

First, features that you create will be in your workspace. If there are other features you would like to include (EMF, GEF, or whatever), those features should be placed in your target platform. The same is true for optional features.

As for segregating different parts of your target platform, you can use Target Definition files to achieve this. Check out the following help topic for more info:

http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.pde.doc.user/guide/tools/file_wizards/new_target_definition.htm

— Patrick

By: Millard Ellingsworth

Millard Ellingsworth — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:40:43 +0000

How does a feature play in the Target platform? If I have an optional Feature for the language pack, does it appear in the features subdir of the target? Do I need to represent it there somehow? What about the scads of *.nl_*.jar files I now have? Just toss them all into the plugins subdir or is there a way to segregate them? Thanks again (and again).

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:06:48 +0000

Hi MIllard,

I would map your features to whatever distribution plans you have. If you’d like to ship languages as a pack, create the feature that way. If you’d like to ship individual languages, then package each as a feature.

— Patrick

By: Millard Ellingsworth

Millard Ellingsworth — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:45:41 +0000

I can probably work that out. So would you recommend a feature-per-language or language group? Slobovian may not make the first round — better to update the NL feature with it later or add a feature when it is ready?

BTW, I thought of a really good reason to follow your advice on this — If the Eclipse fragments somehow got shipped with the primary feature, the application would look partially localized with all the Eclipse stuff looking fine and my stuff looking very English. I appreciate the dialog and your time.